State Attorney General files lawsuit against Mike Nijjar, landlord at the center of LAist investigation

The landlord at the center of a sprawling empire of rundown and often dangerous rental properties in Southern California is now being sued by the state.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit Thursday against Mike Nijjar and a constellation of corporate entities linked to him and his family.

The complaint alleges Nijjar and his associates “rent out unsafe and uninhabitable units, disregard tenants’ requests for repairs, and fail to eradicate pests, inflicting harm and anguish on tenants.”

An LAist investigation reported by Aaron Mendelson in 2020 found that Nijjar’s properties were regularly cited for issues, such as bug infestations, rodents, mold, security issues and lack of repairs.

Tenants told LAist they felt stuck living in unsafe conditions. At one Pomona mobile home park, there was an outbreak of typhus. After a fire broke out at a mobile home park in the Kern County community of Oildale that was not permitted for human occupancy, an attorney for the California Department of Real Estate said landlord negligence “led to the death of an infant.”

The state Attorney General’s Office said the lawsuit is the culmination of a three-year investigation.

“The companies owned by Mike Nijjar and his family are notorious for their rampant, slum-like conditions — some so bad that residents have suffered tragic results,” Bonta said in a news release.

Nijjar’s attorney, Stephen Larson, sent LAist a statement, saying, “The allegations in the complaint are false and misleading, and its claims are legally erroneous.”

The statement goes on to say that Nijjar and his companies “provide an extraordinary service to housing those disadvantaged and underserved by California’s public and private housing markets.”

Leaking roofs, sewage and pests

Officials estimate that Nijjar and his affiliated companies own and manage more than 22,000 rental homes across the state. Most of those properties are in low-income neighborhoods in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino and Kern counties.

The investigation found that the most common alleged problems tenants face in Nijjar-affiliated properties include leaking roofs, structural damage caused by deferred maintenance, sewage from malfunctioning plumbing, and roach and rodent infestations.

Bonta alleged that Nijjar’s operation has treated stacks of code violations and regular lawsuits from tenants as “the cost of doing business.” When tenants ask for repairs that would make their homes habitable, Bonta said, Nijjar’s companies routinely ignore the requests or send unqualified handymen to carry out cheap fixes.

Other allegations against Nijjar and affiliated companies

Prosecutors also allege that Nijjar’s companies raised rents in more than 2,000 units by more than what is legal under California law — and served “dozens or hundreds” of tenants with illegal eviction notices. The state investigation also found alleged instances of illegal discrimination against renters with federal Section 8 rental assistance vouchers.

Elsewhere in the lawsuit, prosecutors say Nijjar’s companies had tenants sign leases that attempted to deceive renters about their rights, such as their right to sue over unsafe conditions or carry out repairs on their own and deduct the cost from their rent payments.

Tenants at Nijjar-affiliated properties have been asking regulators to go after Nijjar for years. LAist covered the results of a 2022 county health inspection at the 425-unit Chesapeake apartment complex in Crenshaw, which found numerous violations throughout the property.

At the time, resident Fernando Fernandez told an LAist reporter: “The inspectors know about the problems. And we know them. So it just frustrates me how nobody’s actually doing anything about it.”

Thursday’s lawsuit, filed in L.A. County Superior Court, accuses Nijjar and others of violating California laws against unfair business practices.

The complaint asks a judge to issue an injunction against Nijjar and his associates to stop those alleged practices and to pay up to $2,500 for each alleged violation. The lawsuit also asks for money to be restored to tenants found to have been wronged.

The Attorney General’s Office is encouraging tenants at Nijjar-affiliated properties to contact them at this link with any further information that might be relevant to the case.